Recent polls show public becoming further disinclined to support the
use of animals in medical research.

A recent poll cited by the
Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) shows that public attitudes towards
the use of animals in medical research are changing, and not the way they
had hoped. From the mid 1990s through 2008 the level of support among the
public has fallen from 70 percent to 54 percent. The FBR, which was founded
in 1981, and has been tracking public attitudes toward animal medical
research ever since, referred to this recent finding as 'a surprisingly
concerning drop in public support.'

As a front group for
pharmaceutical companies and others who profit from animal experimentation,
FBR is worried enough to have recently spent more than $150,000 on
misleading billboards around the country to advocate for animal abuse in
vivisection. Ignoring the lack of scientific validity of animal testing, the
billboards instead show a cute human child and appeal to the emotion of the
viewer, threatening debilitating disease for the child if the mouse depicted
alongside her is not killed.

In adjacent sentences in a recent
ABC News report, these changes in public attitudes and perception appear
to be in no small measure attributable to the stepped up activities of the
Animal Liberation Front, the Animal Liberation Brigade and other clandestine
animal advocacy groups. The utilization of more stringent means against
vivisectors, including the liberation of animals and the infliction of
economic sabotage to decrease the profitability of animal abuse, are
evidently at least partially responsible for the change in public attitudes,
as the resulting publicity of these clandestine raids increases awareness of
medical funding wasted on cruel and useless animal experimentation.

The employment of direct actions, strategies and tactics by these
organizations during the period from 2006 through 2008 have left their mark,
not only on the animal research establishment but on the public as well. The
poll results should leave no doubt as to the effectiveness of targeted
activities and message reinforcement.

[The North American Animal
Liberation Press Office was founded to communicate the actions, strategies,
and philosophy of the animal liberation movement to the media and the
public. Many of these actions are illegal under a current societal structure
that fails to recognize the rights of non-human animals to live free of
suffering, but validates and promotes the "right" of industries to do
whatever they want to animals for profit or research. Within these
conditions, those in the underground working for animal liberation often
cannot speak out directly. Nevertheless, their actions and message is urgent
and deserve to be heard and understood. Since animal liberation actions
either go unreported in the media or are uncritically vilified as "violent"
and "terrorist" with no attention paid to the suffering that industries and
individuals gratuitously inflict on animals, NAALPO seeks to clarify the
motivation and nature of actions taken in defense of animals.]